Water vaporizers are frequently employed in steam reformer based fuel processor systems. In such systems, a hydrocarbon fuel such as natural gas, propane, methanol, gasoline, diesel, etc. is combined with steam and reacted over a catalyst at elevated temperature in order to create a hydrogen-rich gas (reformate) which can be used as a fuel source for a fuel cell anode or as a source of impure hydrogen which can be purified through membrane separation or pressure swing adsorption (PSA) to yield high-purity hydrogen. The water vaporizer serves to vaporize a liquid water source and create superheated steam, which can then be mixed with the gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon fuel source to form the reactants for the steam reforming process. In order to maximize system efficiency, the heat source utilized for vaporization of the liquid water is frequently a high temperature exhaust gas created by combusting unreacted off-gas from the fuel cell anode or PSA or hydrogen separation membrane.
Three distinct regions of heat transfer can typically be identified in such vaporizers. The first region is where the water exists as a subcooled liquid, receiving sensible heating from the heat source fluid; the second region is where the water undergoes vaporization, existing as a two-phase liquid-vapor mixture receiving latent heat from the heat source fluid; the third region is where the water exists as a superheated vapor, again receiving sensible heating from the heat source fluid. The area of sudden transition from the second region to the third region, referred to as the “dryout” location, is typically characterized by a sharp increase in the temperature of the wall separating the heat source fluid and the water flow. This sharp increase is due to the two-phase heat transfer coefficient being substantially higher than the single-phase vapor heat transfer coefficient, resulting in a wall temperature which is relatively close to the vaporizing temperature in the two-phase region and relatively close to the heat source fluid temperature in the superheat region. The temperature gradient is especially pronounced in vaporizers where the fluids flow in a direction counter to one another, and where the inlet temperature of the heat source fluid is substantially higher than the vaporizing temperature of the water. Such a steep temperature gradient over a localized region of the heat exchanger can result in high thermal stresses in that region, leading to the eventual failure of the vaporizer due to thermal fatigue. This problem can be further exacerbated in cases where the water is at a high pressure relative to the heat source fluid, as is frequently the case, since it will subject the wall to large mechanical stresses in addition to the thermal stresses.
Furthermore, fuel cells generally require the operating and cooling fluids to be within specified temperature ranges for each fluid. For example, reformate which is used as fuel at the anode side of the fuel cell generally must be within a specified temperature range for optimal fuel cell operation and also to minimize catalyst degradation. Often, the temperature of a reformate flow is much higher than the maximum input temperature specified for the fuel cell and therefore, the flow must be cooled.